Primož Roglič (Bora-hansgrohe) outpowered Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) on Le Collet d’Allevard on Friday to take the stage win and the yellow jersey.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) crossed the line 42 seconds later in 8th place, losing the yellow jersey to Roglič and giving him a 19″ advantage in the general classification.
Roglič was in good spirits afterwards, despite being a bit sore from the effects of a crash the day before. “Finally I won a race, it’s been a while,” he said. “The whole team, the guys showed commitment from the very start, from day one. And then chasing on the second stage, it didn’t work out. Yesterday [crashing] hit us quite hard, all of us, but today again they showed a great performance so a big thanks to them, we can enjoy today.”
Afterwards, Ciccone explained that he had done his best and couldn’t have expected more. “Roglič won and I did my best. I felt very good, so I can be happy with that,” said Ciccone. “I tried to follow Roglič twice, after which he set a very high pace. We then joined Aleksandr Vlasov, who was riding in front of us, and after that they continued to ride a high pace. That meant I was already a bit on the limit when he started sprinting.”
Evenepoel was pragmatic about his current form. “I’m here to test my limits. That is working, but there is clearly still work to be done,” said Evenepoel. “It will be very difficult to beat Primož. But, just fight and see where the ship ends up on Sunday. And stay calm. I notice that things are improving quickly and luckily I still have 3.5 weeks until the start of the Tour.”
RESULTS
Stage 6: Hauterives > Le Collet d’Allevard (173km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
